1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a system for automatically connecting a potential customer to a dealer who can provide the goods or services desired by the customer.
2. Description of Related Art
A need is recognized by the prior art for a system that will connect a telephone subscriber to a specific provider of the desired goods or services. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,614,328 describes an Automatic Subscriber Answering Service in which the subscriber, after making a telephonic connection with a data center can dial additional digits which cause the subscriber to be provided with information concerning the desired goods or services. An additional feature of that system is the ability of the file selector to only select files within a predetermined range of the subscriber's calling station. However, the foregoing system is relatively inefficient, time consuming and does not appear to have the ability to directly connect a subscriber to the nearest dealer in the desired goods or services based solely upon the telephone number originally dialed by the subscriber.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,577,062 entitled Method for Dispensing Information describes a system in which stock information can be provided concerning a specific stock based upon a sequence of digits dialed by the subscriber. The system also has the ability to invite the caller to dial a pre-arranged sequence thereby forwarding the subscriber to a broker in that stock. The following additional patents may also be relevant to the present invention: U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,556,530; 3,928,728; 4,139,739; 4,164,025; 4,178,476; 4,130,727; 4,313,035; 4,341,929; and 4,608,460.
"Remote Call Forwarding (RCF)" is also a concept that has become fairly well known in the last few years. That technique allows a caller to be directly connected with a desired party even if the desired party changes his or her physical location. The system normally requires that the desired party advise the system so that the new location of the desired party can be stored in a data bank. While RCF is relatively well known, it cannot provide for the forwarding of a telephone call to a dealer in desired goods or services based upon solely upon the telephone digits dialed by the potential customer.
Lastly, there does exist a system for determining the distance between a subscriber and a contacted party. Such a system is described in the New England publication "Background for Management" No. 33, December 1959 in an article entitled "What is This New V-H System?" The purpose of the V-H systems is to determine the airline distance between subscribers and all parties in order to bill the subscriber based upon the geographical distance between the subscriber and the called party. The use of V-H systems for other than billing purposes is believed to be novel.